Rotary folding mechanism for printing-presses.



J. J. WALSER.

ROTARY FOLDING MEGHANISM FOR PRINTING PRESSES.

APYIJIOATION FILED KARHSO, 1908.

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J. J. WALSER.

ROTARY FOLDING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING PBESSES.

APPLICATION FILED MAE.30,1908.

Patented June 29, 1909.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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3 J. WALSER. ROTARY FOLDING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING PRESSES.

APPLICATION FISH-3D MAB.30, 1908.

Patented June 29, 1909.

8 SHEETS-SHEET 8- lllllllllI' UNITED STATESBQTENT JOSEPH J. l/VALSER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO 'lllld MOSS ,lfltlN'llNG PRESS COM-- PANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A ("EORIO'RNIION Ul .lLhlNUlS.

ROTARY FOLDING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING-PRESSES.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JosEPH J. VVALsnR, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicage, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rotary Folding Mechanism for Printing-Presses, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to improvements in rotary folding mechanism for printing presses and particularly to improvements in the mechanism shown and described in Letters Patent of the United States, No. 870,964, to Hans P. Husby, granted November 12, 1907, in which the folding blade in a rotary carrier is operated from normal position into operative position and out of operative position into normal position by two moving guides which, while traveling in the same direction with the folding blade, successively act upon 1t to move it into and out of operative position; and its object is to provide new and improved mechanism by which the folding blade may be operated without any blow or violent contact of parts, thereby increasing the speed at which the blade may be operated. i

In the accompanying drawings :Figure 1 is an end view, showing the folding blade just before it is moved into operative position to fold the paper, being a section on line 11 of Fig. 4. Fig. 2 is a section on the same line, showing the folding blade in its folding position. Fig. 3 is an end View showing the folding blade restored to the normal position by the operation of the second mov ing guide. 4 is a bottom view of the folding mechanism, with one folding roller removed. Fig. 5 is a detail, being a per spective view of one of the disks showing the engaging stud in dotted lines.

Referring to the drawings :6 indicates a carrier of a rotary character of any well known form and description which is m ounted in a suitable framework conventionally indicated at 7, and operated in any wellknown manner. erably designed to operate also as a cutter to cut the web of paper transversely, by means of a cutting cylinder 9 provided with a knife 10, which cooperates with a cutting groove 11, all of the usual character adapted to sever the web transversely. It is also pro vided with pins 12 which are shown only Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 30, 1908.

The rotary carrier is pref- Patented June 29, 1909.

Serial No. 424,175.

conventionally in the drawings, adapted to engage the paper and to operate in the usual manner.

13-l+l indicate folding blades which are carried upon the shafts 15-16 which are j ournaled in the rotary carrier (3 in the usual manner. The shafts 1516 are provided at each end with cross-heads or tnn'iblinglevers 17 which are fast upon the shafts. The tun'ibling-levors 17 are provided upon their outer surfaces with rollers ].8-l 9 which are journaled upon suitable pins upon the tumbling-levers and project from the outer surfaces of the tumlding-levers as is best shown in Fig. 4-.

2021 indicate circular guides which are carried upon suitable supports, as 22, at each end of the rotary carrier 6 in the same vertical plane as the rollers 18-10, and operate as guides to hold the tuinbling-hwers and consequently the blades in normal position,- that is to say, in inoperative position; which, in the form shown, is substantially at right angles with the radius of the carrier which passes through the center of the tumbling-levers, during the rotation of the rotary carrier, and until it is desired to operate the blades.

23-23 indicate folding rollers of the usual form and operation, which are jourualed in the framework below the rotary carrier and are operated in the usual manner. The guides 20-21 are not completely circular, but are cut away at the bottom above the folding rollers to allow for the operation of the rotating cam-members hereinafter described. The openings in the guides 20-21 are staggered with relation to each other at opposite ends of the rotary carrier, as is shown in Fig. ii, and as is shown in solid lines to indicate the ends of the guides in Figs. 1. 2 and 3 at the near end of the rotary carrier and in dotted lines to indicate the ends of the guides at the far end of the a rrier, and. these openings correspond with the position of the blade-operating disks, one at each end, of the rotary carrier, as hereinafter described.

24-25 indicate gears keyed or otherwise secured to the shaft of the rota r carrier.

26-27 indicate gears which are rotatably mounted on studs 2S-29 which are suitably secured to the framework 7. The gears 2627 are adapted to mesh, respectively, with the gears 2el-25, and the relations of the gears 24-25 to the gears 20--27 in the form in which my mechanism is shown are the relation of six to one, so that the gears 26 27 will make SlX revolutions for each revolution of the rotary carrier.

30-31 indicate disks which are integral with or secured to the gears 26 27 and are provided upon their inner surfaces with hubs 3233 which are preferably circular in section.

34:'35 indicate flanges which project inward from the inner surfaces of the disks 3031, respectively, forming between their inner surfaces and the outer surfaces of the hubs 3233 grooves 3637 which are adapted to receive the rollers 1819 on the crossheads 17, to operate them as hereinafter described, the grooves 3637 being of a width to permit the free passage of they rollers l819 through them without any lost motion, as shown in Fig. 5. The stub shafts 2829 are between the axes of the folding rollers 23 and the rotary carrier, and are located one to one side and the other to the other side of the vertical longitudinal plane of the machine. The disks 3031 are considerably larger than the gears 2627 by which they are respectively driven so that the surface speed of the disks may exceed the surface speed of the rotary carrier.

It will be obvious from the above description that the two disks 3031 rotate in the same direction with each other and in the opposite direction to that of the rotary carrier, and the parts are so adjusted and timed in their movement that as the lead end of the tumbling-lever 17 at the farther side of Figs. 1, 2 and. 3 passes into the open space at the bottom of the guide 20, the flange 34 upon the disk 30 at the far end of the rotary carrier will engage the roller at the lead end of the cross-head or tumbling-lever, as is best shown in Fig. 1 in dotted lines. As the parts rotate, the disk 30, moving at a greater surface speed than the rotary carrier, will move the groove 36 so that the roller at the lead end of the tumbling-lever will pass through it, causing the lead end of the tumbling-lever, as the carrier rotates, to be moved downward into the position shown in Fig. 2, at wnich position the paper, which has been carried around by the rotary carrier in the usual manner, is thrust into the bite of the folding rollers 23 and given a transverse fold. The length of the flange 34 is so related to the circumference of the disk 30 and to the speed. at which it is driven that by the time that the blade is in the position shown in Fig. 2, the roller at the lead end of the tumbling-lever will have passed completely through the groove 36 and be in position to be disenaged therefrom, as is best shown in Fig. By this time the flange 35 and groove 37 on the roller at the opposite or near end of the carrier will have reached the position shown in Fig. 2, and, traveling at a greater surface speed than that of the rotary carrier, will engage the roller on the tumbling-lever at the opposite or near end. of the rotary carrier, as is also shown in solid. lines in rig. 2. As the disk 31 at this end of the carrier and the carrier rotate, the groove 37 will engage the roller which has so far been at the lead end of the tumbling-lever upon the near side of the machine, and, causing that roller to pass completely through the groove 37, will move the tumbling-lever and the folding blade with it out of folding position into normal position and thus deliver the tumblinglever to the guides 20 21 in the position shown in Fig. 3. As was the case with the flange 34 and groove 36, the flange 35 and the groove 37 are so proportioned in length to the circumference of the disk 31 and to its speed of rotation that the engaged roller on the tumbling-lever will be freed from the rear end of the groove as the tumbling-lever again reaches normal position.

It will be obvious from the above description that inasmuch as the disk 30 at the far end of the rotary carrier is traveling in the same direction as the tumbling-lever when it engages it and continues to move in the same direction as the engaged roller on the tumbling lever while moving the blade into folding position, the tumbling-lever and with it the folding blade will be rocked into folding position smoothly and without any blow or violent contact of parts; and it will be also obvious that as the disk 31 upon the opposite end of the carrier lie time of the engagement of the groove 37 with the roller on the end of the tumbling-lever upon the opposite end of the carrier is traveling in the same direction therewith and continues to travel in the same direction therewith during the movement of the blade out of folding position and until the blade is discharged. in normal position, the blade will be rocked out of folding position and delivered in normal position smoothly and without any violent contact or blow between the parts. This enables the machine to be run with a speed much greater than where the blade is operated. by any such violent contact of parts.

In the drawings 1 have shown. the rotary carrier as carrying two folding blades diametrically opposite each other with the relation to two to one with the cutting cylinder. This is the form in which I prefer to use it, and it will be obvious from the above description that the diametrically opposite blades are alternately operated by the mechanism and. operations above described. I have also described the gearing as being so propor tioned that the rotar r o aeratin disks will be V driven to one with relation to the rotation of the rotary carrier, and this is the form in which I prefer to use it. It will be obvious, however, that a greater relative speed might be used, the parts being proportioned accordingly, and I therefore of course do not confine my invention to parts driven at this relative speed.

It will, of course, be understood that a web of paper is delivered in any well-known and approved manner to the rotary carrier, engaged by the pins, and severed crosswise by the cutters at the proper moment of time, also all in the well-known manner. The de livery of the paper is so well understood that it is not shown and the cutters and pins are illustrated only conventionally for the same reason.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. The combination with a rotary carrier, a folding blade, and a tumbling-lever at each end of the folding blade, of a rotating member provided with an engaging groove a dapted to engage the lead end of one tumbling-lever in its normal position and, while traveling in the same direction therewith, to move said folding blade into operative position, and a second rotating member provided with an engaging groove adapted to engage the lead end of the opposite tumbling-lever in folding position and, while traveling in the same direction therewith, to move said tumblinglever and folding blade out of folding posi tion and into normal position.

2. The combination with a rotary carrier, a folding blade carried by said rotary carrier, a cross-head at each end of said folding blade, and engaging rollers on said crosshead, of a pair of rotary members located one at each end of said carrier and each provided with a groove adapted to engage said rollers, and means for driving said rotary members in the same direction with each other and in the opposite direction to that of said carrier, the grooves on said rotary members being respectively adapted to successively engage a roller on. said. cross-heads at opposite ends of the carrier and, while traveling in the same direction therewith, to successively move said folding blade out of normal position into folding position and out of folding position into normal position.

3. The combination with a rotary carrier, a folding blade carried by said rotary carrier, a cross-head at each end of said folding blade, and engaging rollers on said cross-head, of a pair of rotary members located one at each end of said carrier and each provided with a groove adapted to engage said rollers, means for driving said. rotary members in the same direction with each other and in the opposite direction to that of said carrier, the grooves on said rotary members being respectively adapted to successively engage a roller on said cross-heads at opposite ends of the carrier and, while traveling in the same direction therewith, to successively move said crossheads out of normal position into folding position and out of folding position into normal position, and guides adapted to bear upon said rollers and hold said cross-heads in normal position while not being operated.

JOSEPH J. YVALSER. \Nitnesses:

W. G. FERGUSON, LILLIAN M. CAGNEY. 

